I have been asked to chair the external team visit for West Point-Beemer Schools. The school asked me because they wanted someone with knowledge of Direct Instruction, which West Point-Beemer Schools is implementing in the elementary school.
Bancroft-Rosalie School has been using Direct Instruction (DI) in the elementary school with the help of outside consultants for the past three years. DI is used for teaching Reading, Language, Math, and Spelling at B-R.
Direct Instruction is a systematic approach to teaching and maintaining basic academic skills. It involves the use of carefully designed curriculum with detailed sequences of instruction. Students are taught individually or in small groups that are made up of students with similar academic skills. Instructors follow a script for presenting materials, requiring frequent responses from students, minimizing errors, and giving positive feedback for correct responding.
Direct Instruction has been identified as one of only three programs that have "strong" evidence of positive effects on student achievement by the American Federation of Teachers (1999), the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (2002), and the American Institutes of Research (2002).
